Students’ use of ionic equation in representing a chemical reaction

Abstract

Chemical equation is an important and powerful tool for chemists to communicate chemical reactions with each other. Different forms of chemical equations have different affordance and limitations. Previous studies were conducted to investigate students’ submicro representations of chemical reactions when given full equations. There is not much known about the effect of types of chemical equations on students’ submicro representations of reactions. This study therefore aims to address this missing piece in the literature. Six Grade 12 students were interviewed in this qualitative study. They were given different forms of equations in different order and were asked to draw diagrams to represent the reaction at the submicro level based on the form of equation given. It was found that there were some remarkable changes in representations of chemical reactions when given different forms of equations within the same student. For example, a student who represented the reaction with the particle model of reactions shifted to the atomic model of reactions with electron transfer when given the ionic equations. The results may mean that extended ionic equation can better facilitate students’ representations of reactions at the submicro level. This may challenge the current sequence of teaching different forms of equations.